Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.

Recent columns

• Big stripers still a couple weeks away
• Include victims' message in safety class
• Dealing with buck fever

• Column archive

Overview

It's not uncommon to hear that if hard-fighting bluegills averaged 3 pounds, they'd be the most popular game fish in America.

Well, there's a fish in Virginia's waters that's shaped like a bluegill, fights like a bluegill, and averages at least 3 pounds.

It's the spadefish, a saltwater species that migrates into the region's coastal waters each June.

Spadefish, which hang around inshore structure such as wrecks, pilings and rock piles, eat jellyfish but they can be tricked by small pieces of clam, too.

A 5-pound spadefish will put up a fight that shames a 10-pound striper. Hook one like Roland Murphy's new state record, and you better brace yourself or you might get pulled out of the boat.

Lakes

Mike Burchett at Claytor Lake's Rockhouse Marina said he has weighed four 20-pound-plus striped bass in the past week. Anglers trolling deep with umbrella rigs in the lake's lower end are having the best success. Bass fishing at the lake has been pretty tough. Catfish action remains good in the upper lake.

Striper action has slowed at Smith Mountain Lake, though a few anglers are still doing well, reported Blaine Chitwood at the Virginia Outdoorsman. Live bait on downlines remains a popular tactic, with some anglers also trolling umbrella rigs. Bass fishing is fairly tough, with Carolina rigs picking some fish off points, and finesse rigs working OK around deep docks and rock structure. Night fishing brush continues to take some good fish.

Streams

After an early summer that saw water levels higher than in any season in recent memory, rivers and creeks in the region have dropped to the kinds of low flows we're more used to seeing.

Even at the lower levels, the streams are producing some pretty good action for smallmouth bass. Tube lures, grubs and soft stick baits are working well, and topwater action has also been fair.

Saltwater

Plenty of spot, whiting and small bluefish are in the surf along North Carolina's Outer Banks. Spanish mackerel and puppy drum action can be excellent when the winds are coorperating. Offshore action has been fair for billfish and dolphin.